Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Hunting down the comics of my youth: The Raven Banner

Of late, I have been picking up a lot of the comic
books that I enjoyed as a kid. Is that an indictment on the medium today?
Somewhat.

There was a time when Marvel was not only producing
terrific superhero comics but also mature and fantasy stories. In the 1980s,
the House of Ideas came out with the Epic line and Epic Illustrated.

What was featured there? Arthur Suydam’s The Adventures ofCholly and Flytrap. Dean Motter’s and Ken Steacy’s The Sacred and the Profane. Dave Sim’s
Cerberus. Rick Veitch’s Abraxas and the Earthman.
Chris Claremont’s and John Bolton’s Marada
the She-Wolf. Michael Moorcock’s Elric.
And there was Jim Starlin’s Dreadstar.There was also J.M. DeMatteis’ and Jon J
Muth’s Moonshadow.

Epic was so diverse that it was indie before indie
was even a concept. In fact, they paved the way for Vertigo (as DC saw the
success of Epic).

One original graphic novel that I loved was Alan
Zelenetz’ and Charles Vess’ The Raven
Banner that was a tale of Asgard.

In a nutshell, the story is about a young man who
goes on a journey to retrieve the Asgardians gods’ enchanted Raven Banner that
was stolen by some trolls after it was lost in battle. This Asgardian goes from
an irresponsible son (his father was the bearer of the banner) to a noble
warrior who loses his life at the end of the story during a battle with
invading giants.

I have always loved Thor because of its mythological
origins but what attracted me to The
Raven Banner was largely Vess’ artwork. Along with P. Craig Russell who
drew Elric as written by Roy Thomas, this was the closest I could get to the
works of Frank Frazetta and Roger Dean whose works were so darn expensive.

If Frazetta was the epitome of high fantasy, and
Dean, an architect of alien worlds and futuristic landscapes, Vess’ art was the
first name in magical and mythological landscapes.

And Vess was the first – to my knowledge – to depict
Asgard as something really out of myth instead of the gleaming spires of a
futuristic city.

I became such a huge fan of Vess that I picked up his
Marvel Fanfare #34-37 featuring The
Warriors Three, Spider-Man: Spirits of
the Earth, The Books of Magic #3,
Stardust, and hardcover collection, Drawing Down the Moon.

The Raven
Banner could have been really good.
The caveat there is the pacing by Zelenetz (who also wrote Alien Legion and Moon
Knight: Fist of Khonshu). The adventures of Greyval Grimson who seeks to
redeem the stolen banner takes up a lot of story but when we arrive at the
climax with the second battle on the plains of Ida, it is over in the space of
two pages. It feels as if the ending was rushed.

But no matter. I loved this story as only a kid can.

I lost this graphic novel during Typhoon Ondoy along
with many other cherished collections. In the years since, I have enjoyed the
thrill and frustration of the hunt of tracking down my favorites books and
issues. Many of the older issues have been collected in new hardcover novels or
omnibus tomes. But The Raven Banner has been out of print.

I checked out my usual sources in the United States –
Midtown Comics, The Strand, mycomicshop.com and milehighcomics.com but it is
has been unavailable.

After a lengthy search, I was able to find it through
the help of a stateside cousin in someone’s collection that was sold for the
princely sum of $1.99. It’s not in mint condition but beggars cannot be
choosers. Furthermore, it has aged gracefully. I am totally fine with it.

Now, I have three of those old over-sized graphic
novels of my youth – The Raven Banner, Marada the She-Wolf, and Spider-Man:
Hooky (as illustrated by the great Berni Wrightson whose inimitable style is kept
alive today by the equally superb Kelley Jones).